#2 - Even Angels Don't Want To Be Squished

MINHA FAMILIA!!! :) :) :)

I love you! I love you! I love you! Hugs and kisses all around! How are you all? Are you happy and well? I love you! :) I have never been so happy in my LIFE! Tudo Bom!!! I absolutely love being a missionary. I love it with my whole heart and soul! Sometimes I reach up and touch my badge and I still get all giddy inside. It's unreal. I'm a true blue, full-blown missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a blessing! And the MTC is super. The food is good, the shower lines are long, my teachers are incredible, the rooms are packed, and the Spirit of Lord is abundant. And momma, you would love the flowers on campus. They are beautiful! I can't believe that it's only been a week and two days. Beautiful Cache Valley seems like a distant, happy dream I had one time already. It's crazy how much I've learned and progressed in the little amount of time that I have been here. Portuguese is the hardest, funnest thing in the world. I love Portuguese. The other night it was my turn to say the prayer in Portuguese. And then I realized that I had left my Portuguese book in the other classroom... I was nervous, but I decided to wing it. I opened my mouth, and ACTUAL Portuguese came out. I don't think I made in grammatical sense in the slightest, but I was able to convey exactly what I wanted. It was a very powerful moment. I also bore my testimony in Portuguese! It's coming along. So, also. I got called to the Sister Missionary Trainer. I'm excited and so nervous. Ha ha :) It's the Zone Leader for sisters, pretty much. They were previously called Coordinating Sisters, but with the increasing amount in sisters, they made some adjustments. So... please pray for me. :) I love the MTC!  I thank my Heavenly Father for letting me be a missionary every night as I jump into bed. (And when I say jump, I mean jump. For some reason there is no ladder to the top bunk in our room so I just kinda run, jump, and hope it works out. :) )

Micail was right. There are angels everywhere we go. My companion is my angel. I love her so much. Her name is Sister P and she is absolutely wonderful in every way. She has curly hair, just like me! But her's is beautiful brown. She is from Louisiana and has the most endearing, little southern drawl. Ha ha, it's kind of rubbing off on me. I catch myself saying things, "Oh my nelly... I just luuuhve, that sister. She melts muh hert." We joke that we are slowly become the same person. :) She is so diligent, happy, kind, and makes me want to be better everyday! The only rules she struggles with is her tendency to break into song and start dancing. So... we get each other. :) The other night we were in our beds and I hear from the bottom bunk,
"Sister Mann?"
"Yes?"
"You know what I'm afraid of?"
(I was totally thinking she was going to say, our visas won't come through, or we'll get mugged in Brazil, or we'll never learn Portuguese.)
"What are you afraid of, Sister Powell?"
"Don't take this personally, but I'm afraid the top bunk is going to break and you're going to squish me..."
BAHAHAHAHAH! I laughed SO hard! :) I said,"Oh, Sister! I will gladly trade you beds!." To which she responded, "Oh, no, Sister Mann! I would much rather you squish me, than I squish you." Ha ha! Oh, she's the cutest. That's the kind of person she is. :) Life is good.

Of course, it's not all daffodils and french toast sticks. There are hard, frustrating moments. I thought when I got here that would walk into a class room, a teacher would come in, we'd go over chapter one, understand the concepts, and then move to chapter 2. FALSE. You learn by making mistakes, falling on your knees, being self-diciplined, and working as hard as you possibly can. I remember before I left EVERYONE and their dog told me it's going to be sooo hard. And I was always thinking, 'Well what?? Why is it so hard?!' I will tell you why it's hard. It's hard because things of great and true value never come easily. And in this case, folks, we are talking about the eternal salvation of men. Missionary work is hard work.

I had a goal to not be homesick, and I've actually done pretty well. There was one instant though. I was sitting in class on the second day and the instructor asked us to turn to a page in Preach My Gospel. I opened mine up and noticed there was some highlighting. I thought that was odd because I didn't remember doing that. I then turned the page and saw some one else's handwriting in the margins. I realized, I did not have my own Preach My Gospel. I had grabbed Luke's. The chapter had all kind of notes in it and highlighting and had been clearly studied and marked. All the sudden I was overwhelmed with the goodness of my little brother. I just began to cry right there in the middle of class. Luke, I love you. You are a good, good boy. Thank you for your example to me. I am so blessed to have such an amazing family who lives the Gospel. I am so glad I get to be sealed to you wingnuts. :)

I love you. I love you forever.
Amo voce. Amo voce para sempra.

Forever yours and with all my love,

Sister Mann